Children of the Source (20 page)

    “So why hasn’t the General hung the bastard?”

    “No physical evidence.  The man is crafty with no morals,” I said.

    “Best Christian you’ve ever seen.
  He operates as Nick Ryan’s disciple,”  Josh said.

    This nightmare seemed to be open-ended.
  I made my way to Headquarters and asked to see Carson.  In ten minutes Carson and Derek emerged from a staff meeting.  I was ushered into the General’s office by the two men.  Carson gestured to a chair opposite his desk and Derek took the one next to it.  “We met the aliens this morning.”  I filled them in on what I could.  I’d practiced on what to say as I rode to the fort, but nothing had come out right.  Not good at lying.  “They come from a planetary cluster in a binary star system - two suns - called The Four Planet Federation.”

    “So why are they here?
  What explanation did they give?”  Carson studied me.

    “Two reasons.
  First they had been here before and left a mess.  A war with different factions over eugenics.  The factions destroyed each other, but another group left to create this Federation.  They feel a need to help the Earth that they hurt.”

    “Guilt on a collective scale?”
  Carson said.

    “Not exactly.
  They see the Earth as a conscious Entity who can be communicated with.”

    “Like a person?” Derek asked.

    “Yes.  These aliens once inhabited a planet called Adora which they helped destroy with eugenics.  Adora finally expelled them.”  Carson arched an eyebrow at Derek.  “Follow me here, General,” I said.  “Planets communicate with each other the way people do.  Adora and Earth have been in communication with each other exchanging information.  This may be a stretch for you but those who ruined Adora have come to Earth to try their hand at forms of eugenics.”

    “Reincarnating?”
  Carson said.

    “Yes.”

    “If this was coming from anyone else but you with all your abilities I’d laugh, and show you the door.  Continue.”  Carson sat back and waited.

  
 “They are concerned that eugenics - forms of it - are getting out of hand here - plant and animal genetics; chemical manipulations into herbicides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals,”  I said.  “They are afraid Earth may be close to the point of refusing to allow this type of manipulation to go on.”

    “How would the Earth stop it?” Derek asked.

    “The Earth is already beginning to take steps.  Look at the various shutdowns of industrial areas due to massive storms and earth changes.  This is a warning.  It will go on.  The western US is an example.  The African nations expelling large corporations that have been exploiting the people and their resources.  This has spread to South and Central America.  A cleansing so to speak.”

    Derek turned to Carson.
  “The Managua Incident, sir.” 

    “Yes.
  I remember.”  A large corporation used plant eugenics where the seed was poisoned with Agent Orange so nothing else would grow and the seeds were engineered so they couldn’t reproduce.  They sold this product under false pretenses to a central American country.  The Agricultural minister was tipped off and pretended to celebrate the deal having the cargo unloaded and stored.  He invited the company leadership to celebrate and then arrested them.  The company hired some mercenaries from a private army which worked in Iraq and Afghanistan to rescue their arrested corporate board and assassinate the country’s leadership.  People in the US Military got wind of the operation and warned the authorities.  Out of fifty  mercenaries, twelve were killed and the rest publically executed.  Those  corporate board members were tried and sentenced to long prison sentences.

    “So what do you think these aliens want?” Carson asked.

    “They’re willing to share technologies that make energy free for one thing,”  I said.

    “That’s a staggering thought.
  And this concern with eugenics?”

    “That I don’t know, but they are very concerned.
  They have information that the old problems with the same players are being transferred to Earth from Adora.  They don’t want this to happen.  They saw unspeakable horrors practiced on innocent species, including their own, and a planet molested and ruined by eugenics.”

    Carson leaned forward.
  “We saw you do something with the Gunny and Hensley.  You were actually shot by a fifty caliber bullet at two hundred yards, and lived.  You brought the Gunny to heel and ruined his rifle.  You have powers that, in most people’s eyes, are God-like.”

    “Only because they don’t understand energy and how it works,” I said.

    “You’ve done many other things that are equally astonishing.  We know what they are.  So my questions are who are you, what are you?”  Carson locked eyes with me.

    “Will, I wish it were as easy as saying A,B,C.
  But it isn’t.  Two weeks ago I couldn’t have saved Victoria from Ren or done what I did to save you from the Gunny.  I evolve like you or anyone else.  I’m getting my nose rubbed in the possible and learning there is no limits to the self.  My abilities may change and grow, but the most important part is the same - my ethics and belief in harming none.  I’m hoping to understand the aliens as you are.”

    “Do they have this ability of yours to melt rifles and operate at long distance, among other things?”
  Derek asked.

    “Most do not.
  There is an order of scientist-priests that can do what I can do.  This is a small group.  A woman who saw us today is a member of that order called The Thera.  It is a Sound Language that works at a molecular level.  Highly specific.  I used it to save Victoria’s life.”

    “So Ren was right.
  You are an alien,”  Carson said.

    “He was born and raised here, General,”  Derek objected.
  “We grew up together,” 

    “Then how do you have this connection?”

    “I’m not sure, but it is there,”  I said.

    Carson turned to Derek.
  “Was friend Jamie always a little peculiar?”

    Derek smiled. “A wee bit.
  My mother was an epileptic.  When he touched her during a seizure, it would short circuit them.  First time was when we were five.  The last time was when we moved to Denver just before I went to VMI.  A lot of short circuiting.  And the animals you healed.  Street people.  I’m afraid, General, he’s been at it a very long time.”

    “Very well.
  Then we are dealing with something much bigger and more complex,”  Carson said.  “You have the abilities of these aliens, and connections you’re being introduced to.  You’re an alien, and only beginning to realize it.  Is that fair?”

    “Yes.
  It’s been disconcerting.  But yes,”  I said.  “I’m from both worlds.”

     “So we keep this to ourselves.
  It doesn’t leave this room.  The last thing we need is a crazy trying to assassinate you.  You seem to be the catalyst between two worlds, and our best tool for dealing with the aliens.  So another question is, do these eugenics people have agents who will try to remove you?”

    “Good question.
  This alien I’m coded on had a violent history fighting and eliminating the eugenics faction.  Enemies were made.”

    “Another question some will ask is where do your loyalties lie?”
  Carson stared at me.

     “Crap, Will.
  I’ve never considered that.”

    “Consider it.
  We’ve already seen Hensley’s thoughts on this question, and the assassination attempt.  It may not be the last time.”

    I left feeling disconcerted.
  Carson promised to be at the meeting the next morning bringing some of his staff.  Walking the mule to the Main Gate, I felt the eyes of Nick Ryan and Ren.  Turning, I found them staring at me from the entrance of the trading post.  Ren made the sign of the evil eye and Nick snickered.  They were up to something, but watching them I couldn’t make contact or get a solid impression.  I turned and walked to the trading post, draping the reins over the hitching post.  I stuck out my hand to Nick.  “Good to see you, Nick.”  The skinny young man with the shock of black hair looked at me incredulously and began to extend his right hand.

    Ren batted Nick hand away.
  “Don’t.  He can get information from you that way.  The man is a kin to the Devil.  Remember we discussed it?”  Nick eyed him.  “You know the things he does, blaspheming God by raising the dead, healing without calling on Jesus, controlling the weather.”  Nick blinked.  “Remember when you tried to burn their fields, and this man and his friends shaped the wind and put out the fire?  Was that natural?”

    “Freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.
  Yeah, it sure wasn’t natural,” Nick said slowly.  “They’re Devil folk.”

    “They worship the earth, not God.
  They pray to nature spirits, and dance around trees beating drums,” Ren said.  “They get their power from the Devil.”  Ren spat on the ground next to my foot. “You were right to try to burn them out.”

    “Ren,” I said, “you certainly are an arse.
  Wrecking this boy’s head.”

    “Don’t you try to hurt me, Jamie.”
  He started to raise his voice. 

    Bert Clark walked up.
  “Problem?”

    “Not from me,” I said
evenly.

    “I know his power,” Ren said, voice dripping with loathing, chest heaving, eyes bright on my face.

    “Scary, uh,” Burt said.  “Get the hell out of here before I kick your over-dramatic ass.”

    Ren began again, “I tell you ... ”
  Burt grabbed at the big man, but he squirmed away, and then fell on the ground, foam around his mouth, eyes rolling back in his head.  I grabbed a pine stick and jamed it between his teeth before he bit his tongue in half. Blood welled in his mouth.  I used the Sound Language to stop the bleeding and short circuit the spasm. Then I turned his face to the side draining the blood on the ground.  Repairing the altered and damaged nerves proved harder as his Entity tried to resist my work.  About a minute into the struggle, with my petitioning the Powers-That-Be, there was a strange release.  The Entity’s power faded like a great wind leaving.  I felt a stronger power sweep it back and away, and settle into Ren.  I thanked the unknown Power and continued my work, finally releasing and altering the nerve damage.  Ren sat dazed, out of his body, not really aware of what was happening.  By the time I was done a crowd of fifty to a sixty people had gathered in a circle.  A few lent their energy which helped.  I finished knitting his tongue together and gently wiped the blood away.  I touched Ren gently with my mind, and eased him into his physical body.  He took a deep breath and opened his eyes which fluttered and then I eased him into a light sleep.  I didn’t need any dramatics.  Major Alan Haroldsen, the fort doctor, knelt at my side.  “I don’t understand what you did, but you saved his bacon.  Thank you, Jamie.  I’ll have him taken to the infirmary.”

    “Thank you, Alan.”
  I stood.  “He needs time to think more than anything else.”  I spotted Nick on the outskirts of the crowd, but he backed and ran away into the fort, disappearing among the many buildings.  A religious fanatic who had tried his damnedest to destroy us.  Now, riled to the point where anything is good and okay as long as it ruins and destroys what he believes is evil.

    “He’s crazy with religion,”
  Burt said.

    “Not what we need right now, my man,”
  I said, and pointed to the alien spacecraft.  “Might keep an eye on Nick and his gang.  God knows what he and his are capable of.”

    I left the fort and made my way back to Cheshire on my mule, Windy.
  I knew who had removed Ren’s Entity.  Entities are created by other Entities.  Ren’s Entity was removed by its creator Entity.  Like a parent or grandparent.  After all the hellish programming created by Ren’s Entity, how could he be salvaged?  I didn’t know.  I hoped that Ren could find a peace he hadn’t yet found in this life now that his wayward Entity was gone.  I thought of Locus and sent him a thought about Ren.  Perhaps he had developed a source that could help.

    “You look like a bear, Jamie.
  What’s going on?”  Judith pushed me down on the couch.  I explained about what happened at the fort.  “It’s more than that.”

    I explained the corridor of dreams and the door I had to open.
  “Entities are complex, and I when I asked to know past lives, I was told I didn’t want to know.  Now I suspect why.  The hell Entities put their personalities through can be merciless and brutal.  Now I have to open a door into Kodus’ life that I want to keep closed.”  A door that pulsed with terror and revulsion.  I had have no choice but to go there, and get the knowledge to keep us safe.  I didn’t want to go to bed, but I finally did.

     I found myself in the Corridor of Dreams.  The door I’d always dreaded drew me like a powerful magnet.  My hand clutched the door handle as though controlled by an outside force.  I jerked it open, and found myself inside a huge and elaborate medical laboratory.  I had pinned a large rawboned man against the wall with the Sound Language.  Eyes wide with terror, he tried to pull away from me, but I held him with my mind like a helpless rag doll.  I was surprised at the venom and pleasure in my voice.  “You’re finished with creating nightmares, but you’re public nightmare is only beginning, Nelon.  You will live every pain and horror you’ve inflicted with your eugenic crimes.  No one will save you.  Not Akenton, nor any of his pathetic creatures.  They will leave you die without a care.  And die you will, in public with no recourse to mercy or help.  Your chief henchwoman Tellus will join you.  I will award your physical bodies death when you both have suffered every indignity you have given others.”  I turned away and he stayed where he was, captured by my mind.  “Now I will do what I must to clean up this horror.”